Be honest about Brexit, Mr Corbyn

EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier (R) and British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn walk prior to a meeting on July 13, 2017 in Brussels.Credit:
OLIVIER HOSLET

The mystery of Labour’s missing Brexit policy is solved: Jeremy Corbyn would give the EU almost everything it wants. Normally one would look for such details in a press release or a speech. Instead, the Labour leader’s negotiating strategy had to be divined from a note on a report of a meeting he had with Michel Barnier. The concessions that Mr Barnier understood him to be offering, in an account Mr Corbyn disputes, included membership of a customs union, guaranteed rights for EU citizens during the transition and even some continued oversight by the European Court of Justice.

These would provide clear blue water between Mr Corbyn and Theresa May, who has ruled out a customs union. Also, a little water between Mr Corbyn and Mr Corbyn: at other times he has emphasised a “no” to the customs union or else pledged that Britain would have control over the terms of trade, which the customs union...